Round about Lahr News and views from Lahr newspapers, summarized by Trisha Cornforth Huge damage from worst hurricane ever to hit Germany On 26 December an unexpected storm wind named "Lothar" caused serious damage and deaths in the whole of Europe, especially hitting France and Germany. In the Lahr area it knocked down more trees than would normally have been felled in 20 years. This means disaster for local communities and private forest owners because they must pay for the timber to be cut as soon as possible, before bark beetles start to infest everything next summer, but will not be able to sell it at profitable prices because the value of lumber has of course dropped dramatically. Losses are estimated at millions of DM, removal of the wood is dangerous, woodland paths are still unusable for walkers and the Black Forest will not fully recover for at least a generation. Aluminum production comes to Lahr airfield On 17 January aluminum production started in A26, one of the newer Canadian Forces buildings that was formerly part of Air Defence, situated on the right of the Lahr airfield main entrance (now known as "Europa-Strasse" Photos). It is a branch of the Paul Imhof metal company which will invest about DM 700 000 in new machinery. The firm chose Lahr because it didn`t have enough space to expand in the village of Welschensteinach, its original location in the hills between Schweighausen in the Schutter valley and Steinach in the Kinzig valley. The building has a surface area of 2700 sq.m. so there is also plenty of room for storage. The Lahr factory will begin with 10 workers and that number is expected to double within the first two years. Costs of dealing with environmental damage to Lahr airfield Negotiations on this topic have been going on for more than five years between various offices representing the German federal government, the Baden-Württemberg provincial government and local government. At last some kind of agreement seems to have been reached on the German side in attempts to avoid paying for clearing Lahr airfield pollution caused by French and Canadian Forces stationed there. The main problem is fuel pollution of the ground water under the airfield; 23 particular places (with a total surface area of 39 hectares) are involved. According to the latest official announcement, 75% of the total costs will be assumed by the Canadian state and 25% by the German federal government, if the Canadians cannot be persuaded to cover the whole costs! Winter carnival is the "fifth season"! The silly season known as "Fastnacht" has now begun and the streets of Lahr were already decorated with colorful rags as soon as the Christmas decorations came down after 6 January! (Photos) A big parade with lots of marching bands and at least 4000 masked costume-wearers took place on Sunday 16 January to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of the "Narro" group from Lahr. Because Easter is so late this year, the carnival season is particularly long (nearly two months) the high point of the Fastnacht weekend between "Dirty Thursday" and Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) will not take place until 2-7 March and the festivities will all be over but for the crying on Ash Wednesday (8 March 2000)!